What a favored lot is thine of
all the peoples in the earth. The Lord has set his love upon
that bride which he has chosen from before the foundation of
the world. A glorious thought for he's faithful to her. There's no shadow of turning
with him. We're looking here in the book
of Hebrews, and chapter four, we've been looking through. Last
week we had looked at chapter three, and the theme of that
chapter, if you want to give it a theme, is how shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation? Now Paul, in writing to the Hebrews
here, set forth a basis for their faith to rest upon, which is
the faith of God's people in all ages. It is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And it was necessary that Paul
write specifically to the Hebrews because chiefly unto them were
committed the oracles of God. They are a favored people in
the earth as a nation, as a carnal nation. Now where people make
a mistake is in thinking that the carnal nation of Israel are
the chosen people of God. The carnal nation of Israel only
served as an illustration of the true Israel of God, which
was the Israel of God long before the carnal nation of Israel was
called out of darkness in Abraham. And so it is that we rejoice
today as we consider that people whom the Lord has loved with
an everlasting love. Now that's an encouraging thing
to those who know themselves to be sinners and in need of
help. It's a very discouraging thing
to those that think they have the power at any time they get
ready to seek the Lord and find Him according to the good pleasure
of their own will. When a man knows himself to be
a sinner, he knows himself to be without power. He knows himself
to be in need of help. And the only one that can give
him that help that he stands in need of is the Lord. And were it not that the Lord
had chosen a people out of the earth to call His own, none would
have come. Now, men like to think that they
would seek the Lord if just given the opportunity. You often hear
it, you know, men say, well, doesn't God give everybody a
chance to be saved? That'd be a sad situation if
the Lord said, well, here's a chance to be saved. And what would you
do then? Some people say, oh, well, I'd
take advantage of it, would you now? When your whole life you've
gone contrary to the way of God, and apart from the mercy of God
to show you what you are by nature, you'd continue on in that way.
And so it is the grace of God, dear brethren, that we come to
declare, and it is the grace of God that Paul speaks about
here to the Hebrews in this letter. And he points them to the one
who is the very foundation and basis of our faith. He said,
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time
past to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son. Now, he does not in any wise,
in fact, he builds off of the fact that the Lord committed
to the nation of Israel the oracles of God. That is, the prophets
of God were sent to the nation of Israel. They weren't sent
to the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and all of the
other ites that were scattered out through the earth. He sent
them to Israel. And it was to Israel that the
promises of God were made in the Old Testament and that to
them He gave the law and gave the understanding of the things
of God and all of the sacrifices that were set forth. Now we know
As we are standing here in the 21st century, here we are, we have seen all these
things unfold. They didn't see these things
unfold. They saw them way out there in the future in the Old
Testament, but now in these last days. See, this is the last time. We're not waiting for some prophetic
thing to take place out yonder and say, well, yep, it's the
last days. No, brethren, this is the last time. These are the
last days. And in these last days, Jesus
Christ has come into the world as the prophet of God. We're
not waiting for other prophets. Now, there are many religions,
sects, and cults, and what have you throughout the earth who
have their various prophets that have arisen over time. We're
not waiting for a prophet. If some man comes speaking to
you, telling you that he is a prophet, he is a liar. Because Christ
alone is the prophet sent from God. And he alone is the one
who comes speaking the truth of God. If you want to hear the
truth of God, you must hear it through Jesus Christ. It will
not come to you in any other way. And so it is that Paul writes
to these Hebrews and he's making it plain to them that Jesus Christ
is the basis of their salvation. That it's not in all those things
that they have trusted in in time past. Remember, Paul said
he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
He was circumcised eighth day of the house of Benjamin. He
was everything you could possibly be as far as a religious man
was concerned. But he said, I count it all as
done. That's pretty strong words, is
it not? He says, I count it all as done that I might win Christ. Because you see, Christ alone
is that one whom we seek. We're not seeking another. We're
not seeking some fancy tongue preacher to tell us the truth.
We're looking to Christ. Now the Lord does indeed use
men to declare the glory of Christ. He does do that in the earth.
But dear brethren, we're not hanging on the words of a preacher,
we're desiring to hear from Christ. May He give us ears to hear today,
to hear the gospel, even as it is written for us here. While it is said, today if you
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
He's pointing back to the children of Israel as they wandered in
the wilderness and they died. See, not one of them that came
out of Egypt ever went into the promised land. They all died
in the wilderness, except for Caleb and Joshua. And so it is,
dear brethren, that the Lord was grieved. Why? Because they
didn't believe Him. And how shall we escape today
if we do not believe Christ? See, that's the final word. And
there's no other salvation, there's no other means whereby a man
might come into the presence of God except through Jesus Christ. And so, He says here, let us therefore
fear, beginning in verse one, chapter four. Let us therefore fear lest a
promise being left to us of entering into his rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we
which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in
this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore
it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it
was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again,
he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long
a time, as it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that
is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own
works, as God did from his. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. For the word of God is quick,
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but
all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help. in time of need. Now that's quite
a powerful chapter in the whole Bible, especially here in the
book of Hebrews. There is a rest for the people
of God. Now he uses here something that
would be very As an illustration, a very prominent
theme that resided among the nation of Israel. And that was
the matter of keeping the Sabbath. That there was one day in seven,
he said, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The Jews, being men, as normal
men are, and religious men on top of that, took something that
the Lord meant for the benefit of the people and meant for a
purpose to show them what we're speaking about now, which was
Christ. They took and made a idol out
of something that was good. And in the days when the Lord
Jesus walked upon the earth, if you will look, most of the
recorded healings that He did took place on the Sabbath day. Now this was a great thorn in
the side of the religious Pharisees. Because you see, they were looking
for something that they could hate Christ for And they found
it. They said, ha, he doesn't keep
the Sabbath. He's working on the Sabbath. He's to be condemned. And so it is that they substituted
their thoughts about what the Sabbath was for who the Sabbath
actually was. The Lord Jesus said, the Lord
didn't make man for the Sabbath, but he made the Sabbath for man.
And he said, the son of man, is Lord even of the Sabbath day. And so this was a principle that
was laid upon them and taught them. And it certainly, you know,
as we stand here in the 21st century and a lot of water has
gone under the bridge, we certainly do not in any wise despise those
even in the present day who would believe and convinced in their
heart that they should set aside one day in seven as unto the
Lord. I certainly don't find anything
to criticize somebody about in that. Paul said, you know, one man
regards every day alike and another man regards a day in a fashion. Let every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind. But what we are warned against
is making such a thing as that into an idol so that it becomes
more than what it actually is. And so, you know, there are certain
restaurants, and I have that close on, of course, what we
call the Lord's Day, not really the Sabbath, but the Sabbath
is Saturday. If you wanna be technical about
keeping the Sabbath, you're gonna have to do it on Saturday. But
nonetheless, I understand all of those things, the arguments
for the first day of the week and setting it aside. And of
course, we do set aside this day, do we not? As a day that
we come together to worship the Lord. It's not like just any
other day to us. It's a day that we regard. I
look forward to it every week. I mean, it's a thing that's a
blessing to me, to come and gather with God's people. So in that
fashion and in that way, we do have a regard unto a particular
day. Because we don't meet on Saturday,
we don't meet on Friday. We don't meet on Monday, but
we do meet on Sunday. And it is a blessed day. And
I personally am of the mind I won't let anything stand between me
and that as best I can by the grace of God. And so this is a fundamental thing that would
be in the heart of every Jew that he's writing to here. And
he speaks about what it is and why he gave it. and what it is
to represent. But he says, you know, we need
not to come short of the rest that God has given for his people.
And who's he speaking about? Now, we know that the rest for
God's people is Christ. Now, I'm glad that, you know,
there is a day when men, to some great extent, consider, well,
we're going to take a day off. I'd hate to work. The Lord said
six days shall you labor. And so I'm glad that it's not
seven days a week. You know, a man that works seven
days a week's gonna pretty soon, that's gonna catch up with him.
Because the Lord didn't design men to be in that way. And so he said, therefore let
us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his
rest, any of you should seem come short of it. Now, you can
come short of the rest that's in Christ by not having regard
to the importance of Christ in the gospel. Some people look
at the gospel as kind of like, well, Christ died on the cross
and that's part of the gospel. No, that is the gospel. See,
I mean, if Christ didn't die on Calvary's cross, there wouldn't
be a gospel. If Christ didn't rise from the
dead on the third day, there wouldn't be a gospel. If Christ
didn't ascend back to the Father, there wouldn't be a gospel. If
Christ was not coming again in power and glory to receive that
which belongs to Him, there wouldn't be a gospel. All of the gospel
rests in Jesus Christ. And He is our rest. He's that
one in whom we rely. You see, I'm not resting in myself.
Some people are. You remember the rich young ruler,
when he came to the Lord, and he said, you know, what good
thing can I do to inherit eternal life? The Lord said, well, you
know the commandments. He said, well, I kept all that
from my youth up. How many people do you know,
they're convinced, buddy, I keep ten commandments, buddy, I'm
doing the best I can. Every man that ever says that's
telling himself a lie. Because there's not one of the
commandments every day that you do not trample upon. You might
not take delight in it, or whatever, but in an offhanded manner, and
without even thinking about it, you trample underneath your feet
the law of God. Because it's in the nature of
man to do so. And so how foolish is it for
a man to think that he could trust in the arm of the flesh,
or in his ability to keep the law, can't be done. And so let's
be mindful that we don't come short of the rest that God has
given, which is Jesus Christ. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. What
a glorious thing. He rested from all his works.
And he said, this is a picture of the Sabbath. And in this place
again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first
preached entered not in because of unbelief. Look at what it
says there. Seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter in. See, there's some that must enter
in. Dear brother, when we preach the gospel, we're not preaching
out here hoping somebody might believe it. We're preaching the
gospel knowing that the people of God will hear his voice. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
I know them and they follow me. And so we preach the gospel,
dear brethren, knowing that some, as he said here, some must enter
in. There's no doubt about it. Therefore it remaineth that some
must enter in, and they to whom it was first preached enter not
in because of unbelief. Now there are many who hear the
gospel and don't believe it. See, everybody that hears the
gospel doesn't believe it. Everybody that hears with the
hearing ear that the Lord gives a man that ability to hear, he
will believe it. But those, there are many who,
they can take it or leave it. I mean, you know, once in a while,
they don't mind going somewhere and hearing somebody preach,
but it's not a thing that drives their life. It's not a thing
that they're delighting in. It's just something that they
do. And so there are many, he says
here, who entered in not because of unbelief. That's what unbelief
is. It is that which doesn't engage
the truth of God, doesn't hunger after it. Again, he limited a
certain day, saying in David, today for so long a time as it
is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day? Now there is a day that he spoke
to them of, the day of salvation. Now the day of salvation has
come. But you see, they didn't live in the day of salvation.
But Peter said, this is the day of salvation. Now we're not waiting
for another one. The Lord has unveiled his salvation
in the earth in the person of Jesus Christ. And so we come
and embrace him. And if we turn aside from that,
brethren, we have nothing left. See, there's nothing for a man
apart from Jesus Christ. Now, I know it's common in our
society to say, well, you know, all these great religions of
the earth, we're all trying to go to the same place. No, we're
not. Yeah, I mean, all men would like
to think of a pie in the sky by and by and in the sweet by
and by and when we all get to heaven and all of that kind of
stuff. I mean, that's just a common thing. But dear brethren, all
peoples in the earth, regardless of what religion they may hold
on to, are not headed in the same place. Because Christ is
not only the way, He's the destination. See, he said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. He's the way, but he is the destination. See, he's that one we desire.
We're not just wanting, you know, like the little boy, and I've
shared this illustration with you, but it's quite a true one.
The teacher was preaching on hell and said, does anybody want
to go to heaven? And, of course, everybody was
scared, you know, thinking about how they wanted to go to heaven,
because they sure didn't want to go to hell. And so everybody's
hand went up in the room that they wanted to go to heaven.
But one little boy, he was sitting back there, and the teacher said,
well, Johnny, you don't want to go to heaven? He said, oh,
yeah, I want to go. But he says, I thought you was
getting up a load to go today. So you see, people, everybody
wants to go to heaven. I mean, if you talk about it,
nobody wants to go to hell. I mean, how stupid would that
be? But dear brethren, it's not about wanting to go to heaven
or not wanting to go to hell. It's about knowing Christ. Resting in Him, believing Him. Worshipping Him. For if Jesus had given them rest,
then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. He didn't
give them rest. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. You know, this is an interesting
passage right here. Verse nine is a word used here
that's used nowhere else in all the scripture for rest. And it could be translated a
Sabbath-keeping. It was only used this one time. It's never translated rest anywhere. In fact, it's not even used anywhere
else in the scriptures. And it's only used here once
in translated rest, as sabbatismos. There is a Sabbath-keeping for
the people of God. And dear brethren, the Sabbath
keeping for the people of God is not a day you can find on
the calendar. The Sabbath keeping for the children of God is a
day which is the day of rest wherein it is a place God's people
rest in Christ. It's not a day. But it's Christ. There is a Sabbath keeping for
the children of God and it's Christ because He has rested.
Even as the picture is about what the Sabbath is, who rested
from His works? God rested from His works. Jesus
Christ hung on Calvary's cross and He said these words, it is
finished. He did the work. He satisfied
the claims of the law. He brought salvation to His people. As we read on here in the book
of Hebrews, it says, He obtained eternal redemption. He bought
something. See, you don't go to the grocery
store with a sack full of money and just go in there and say,
you know, I want to buy some stuff. I hope to buy something. No,
what do you do? You go in the store and you pick
out what you're going to buy, and you put it in the cart, and
you carry it to the cashier, and you pay the money for what
you have in the basket, and it is yours when you walk out the
door. Now, brethren, that's what redemption
is. Jesus Christ came into the world not to try to do something.
He didn't come into the world hoping he could accomplish something,
but he came into the world to purchase that people which he
loved with an everlasting love, and he has accomplished exactly
that. Now, who are those people? How
do you know them? They're sinners. They're sinners,
everyone. They're not the Pharisee who
went down to the temple and said, Lord, look at all this. I'm not
like these other men, especially not like this old publican over
here. The publican, he didn't even
so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but he smote on his breast
and he says, oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And the Lord
said one of those men went down to his house justified. It was
not the Pharisee who came there boasting of what he was and proud
of who he was, but it was that sinner. And that's those for
whom Christ died. The Lord said he came to seek
and to save that which was lost. He came to save sinners. What
a glorious one he is. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from
him. Now Christ has ceased from his
own works, but you see, by the grace of God, through the activity
of faith that is given to those whom the Lord calls, they believe. And believing, see what believing
is is resting in Christ. Cast thy deadly doing down. You know, what is it that you
could do that could make you acceptable on the side of God?
I mean, if you read your Bible and you memorized it and you
prayed every day and you went to church every time the doors
was open, is that enough? No, it's done according to what
Paul said. It's nothing. Passes away in
a moment. You know, we often think of our
lives as holding great signification. I'm gonna offend some of you
here. And we all think of how important
we are in the world. The reality is that when you
die, after about a week, you'll mostly, for the most part,
be completely forgotten. except for those that's the closest
to you. And the world will go right on
as if you was never here. And that's how significant we
are in this world. But you see, the Lord loves his
people with an everlasting love. And every one of them is particularly
significant unto him because it is for them that he poured
out his life's blood. It is for them that he prayed
in the garden when he said, Father, I pray not for the world, but
I pray for them which thou hast given me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou hast given them to me. Oh, I'm glad that
we have a great high priest, even as we read here in the last
verse of this chapter. Whoever lives to make intercession.
for them that come unto God by him. Now, a lot of people think
that what that means is that Christ is down up on his hands
and knees before the fathers, how they picture it, and he's
pleading for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
pleading for his people with words. Charles Wesley wrote it
best in a hymn, I believe. He said, five bleeding wounds
he bears. received on Calvary. They pour
effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry. Nor let that ransomed sinner
die. The Lord will lose none whom
the Father has given to him. None for whom he poured out his
precious blood shall ever perish. What a glorious message that
is. And those that know themselves to be sinners will rejoice. and
be reminded that it's Christ and Christ alone. It's that one
in whom they rest. I don't want anybody to help
me out. I don't want anybody to tell me anything. Just tell
me about Christ. Oh, that I might be like John
Newton on his deathbed. When he was asked, what are the
things that you remember? He said, I can't remember but
two things. He said, what a great sinner I am. but what a great
Savior Christ is. Oh, that His name might be upon
our lips, in our heart, and in our mind, that we might not be
moved away to the right or to the left, because it's Christ
and Christ alone. He's the Savior of sinners, and
He saves such as come unto Him.